Ceri JC
Registered user
I had HID High Beam snags (eventually)
Unlike most people, I was actually reasonably impressed with the stock headlights on the F800GS compare to most bikes. That said, most things on a bike can be improved and almost 60% of my miles are covered in the dark, so lighting is extremely important to me. As a result I have the HID50s on both high and low beam. I have had them for about 18 months and 20K miles. They were supplied by Adventure Spec and fitted by Cardiff Motorrad. I have both the low and high beams on my F800GS. I was initially hesitant to have HID high beam as I have heard vague rumours on the internet of:
1. HID on high beam has much less of a benefit than low beam as high beam is already set up to be fairly full on.
2. The lag in the lights getting "up to temperature" of a few seconds makes flashing other vehicles impossible and when travelling on the UK's busy roads at night, constantly dipping and undipping high beam means it seldom has time to get up to brightness.
3. HID lights don't like having the power cycled. Being turned on/off is the main thing that wears them and they wear out much more easily. On modern bikes with "always on" low beams, clearly this isn't a problem, but a high beam being flicked on and off several times a minute when riding at night will break very quickly.
The people talking about these problems all seemed to have, "heard about them, so I only fitted low beam/didn't fit HID". In my research, I never came across anyone online or IRL who actually claimed to have HID for both lights and due to one of these problems, wanted to go back to a standard high beam or regretted getting HID for high beam. So I decided to take the plunge and accept if it didn't work out, I'd switch the high beam back to a regular bulb.
The good news
My findings are that '1' & '2' are non-issues. Both HID lights on, the lighting is the best of any bike I've seen by a huge margin. I have absolutely no inclination to fit additional aux/rally lights to the bike. Secondly, the "lag" on my bike when flicking on high beam is only perceptible the first couple of times you're turning high beam on and off during a section where you're using high beam. Even then, we're talking 2-3 seconds. I don't understand the science behind it, but the effect is as if it retains having "warmed up" for 5 minutes or so after it has gotten up to full brightness. Once up to temperature, flicking it on/off results in pretty much instantaneous full brightness. In terms of flashing other vehicles, whilst the perceptible brightness from on the bike may be less before it warms up, a quick check in the garage stood in front of the bike reveals that hitting "pass" is definitely at least as noticeable as normal high beams.
The bad news
It appears as though there may be some truth in '3'. In the first 17K miles of use, I only had the connector to one bulb shake loose once, resulting in a "lamp f" message and remedied at the road side by reconnecting the connector. I don't consider this much of a problem, the stock low beam headlight did this once in the first 6K before I had HID fitted.
The last 2K miles, however, I've been having a problem. The problem seems to manifest itself when the bike has been in use for a while and there have been several minutes of riding where I've been flicking it on and off. It gradually works less and less. At first, it tends to fail, then you flick it off and back on and it works. As you do this more and more, the failure rate gets higher, until eventually high beam won't come on at all. 20 minutes or so of riding just on low beam and it appears to "reset" itself. IE It again works fine for a few minutes, then as you flick it on/off more, gradually fails more and more, repeat ad infinitum.
One time when this occurred when it had been raining heavily, unplugging, WD40ing and then reconnecting the connections to the high beam solved the problem. Unfortunately, a few hundred miles of night riding later and it was back again. I noticed when using high beam with the engine stopped, sometimes there is a high pitched whine, almost like a fuel pump starting up on a Jap sportsbike when you turn the key in the ignition, but haven't yet fired the engine.
Next steps in investigating it
I'll get Cardiff Motorrad to check it out in the next service and report back.
I'd love to hear any input to my problem that MotorbikeAdventures may have?
Any tossers care to chip in with an opinion/something I can try?
-----
Even if it's not repairable and turns out '3' is true and I've "worn it out", it has been enough of a boon that I'd gladly pay for another new high beam kit and just have another one fitted every couple of years. That said, I would of course much rather find out for sure what the problem is and if there is a way to avoid it.
TIA in advance for any guidance you may be able to offer.
Unlike most people, I was actually reasonably impressed with the stock headlights on the F800GS compare to most bikes. That said, most things on a bike can be improved and almost 60% of my miles are covered in the dark, so lighting is extremely important to me. As a result I have the HID50s on both high and low beam. I have had them for about 18 months and 20K miles. They were supplied by Adventure Spec and fitted by Cardiff Motorrad. I have both the low and high beams on my F800GS. I was initially hesitant to have HID high beam as I have heard vague rumours on the internet of:
1. HID on high beam has much less of a benefit than low beam as high beam is already set up to be fairly full on.
2. The lag in the lights getting "up to temperature" of a few seconds makes flashing other vehicles impossible and when travelling on the UK's busy roads at night, constantly dipping and undipping high beam means it seldom has time to get up to brightness.
3. HID lights don't like having the power cycled. Being turned on/off is the main thing that wears them and they wear out much more easily. On modern bikes with "always on" low beams, clearly this isn't a problem, but a high beam being flicked on and off several times a minute when riding at night will break very quickly.
The people talking about these problems all seemed to have, "heard about them, so I only fitted low beam/didn't fit HID". In my research, I never came across anyone online or IRL who actually claimed to have HID for both lights and due to one of these problems, wanted to go back to a standard high beam or regretted getting HID for high beam. So I decided to take the plunge and accept if it didn't work out, I'd switch the high beam back to a regular bulb.
The good news
My findings are that '1' & '2' are non-issues. Both HID lights on, the lighting is the best of any bike I've seen by a huge margin. I have absolutely no inclination to fit additional aux/rally lights to the bike. Secondly, the "lag" on my bike when flicking on high beam is only perceptible the first couple of times you're turning high beam on and off during a section where you're using high beam. Even then, we're talking 2-3 seconds. I don't understand the science behind it, but the effect is as if it retains having "warmed up" for 5 minutes or so after it has gotten up to full brightness. Once up to temperature, flicking it on/off results in pretty much instantaneous full brightness. In terms of flashing other vehicles, whilst the perceptible brightness from on the bike may be less before it warms up, a quick check in the garage stood in front of the bike reveals that hitting "pass" is definitely at least as noticeable as normal high beams.
The bad news
It appears as though there may be some truth in '3'. In the first 17K miles of use, I only had the connector to one bulb shake loose once, resulting in a "lamp f" message and remedied at the road side by reconnecting the connector. I don't consider this much of a problem, the stock low beam headlight did this once in the first 6K before I had HID fitted.
The last 2K miles, however, I've been having a problem. The problem seems to manifest itself when the bike has been in use for a while and there have been several minutes of riding where I've been flicking it on and off. It gradually works less and less. At first, it tends to fail, then you flick it off and back on and it works. As you do this more and more, the failure rate gets higher, until eventually high beam won't come on at all. 20 minutes or so of riding just on low beam and it appears to "reset" itself. IE It again works fine for a few minutes, then as you flick it on/off more, gradually fails more and more, repeat ad infinitum.
One time when this occurred when it had been raining heavily, unplugging, WD40ing and then reconnecting the connections to the high beam solved the problem. Unfortunately, a few hundred miles of night riding later and it was back again. I noticed when using high beam with the engine stopped, sometimes there is a high pitched whine, almost like a fuel pump starting up on a Jap sportsbike when you turn the key in the ignition, but haven't yet fired the engine.
Next steps in investigating it
I'll get Cardiff Motorrad to check it out in the next service and report back.
I'd love to hear any input to my problem that MotorbikeAdventures may have?
Any tossers care to chip in with an opinion/something I can try?
-----
Even if it's not repairable and turns out '3' is true and I've "worn it out", it has been enough of a boon that I'd gladly pay for another new high beam kit and just have another one fitted every couple of years. That said, I would of course much rather find out for sure what the problem is and if there is a way to avoid it.
TIA in advance for any guidance you may be able to offer.
Any Probs MrP please just pop in! 
